The Daily EO: May 14th, 2013

My brother is very much like my parents and in some ways like me, but mostly just like him. He is particular, careful, precise, fastidious, and a planner. He thinks that I am sloppy, careless, chaotic and something like a hurricane or tornado. Those who know me and don’t know him do not understand how someone as plan focused and organized could be considered any of these things. But I must tell you, in comparison it is true. If you want something done exactly and painstaking correctly and carefully, you ask my brother. If you want it taken care of on a well thought out and exacting plan, ask my brother. If you have multiple competing deadlines, chaotic frenzy that needs sorting and a plan for just getting through – you ask me. And don’t complain about the state of my desk in the meantime.

I tell you this because it was my brother Todd who spent hours vacuuming my car when the window was smashed. He spent a lot of time picking out the glass, moving the seats around for better angles and looking for the shining bits. I was thinking “C’mon already, that is enough! Let’s go!” – too much energy was already spent on this smash and grab.

But he persisted. And yet over the last couple of months, I find this every now and then:

I show you this, not because I want to say a careful man did a bad job, but to show how it is impossible to get all the bits of glass out of a car. If the world’s best can’t get it all, nobody can.

May 14th, 2013 Extra-Ordinary: Sparkling memories which are not all together welcome.